The rest of the rescue expedition joined Verdan and the others at the ambush site in short order. Pawel and Pania were still absent while they tracked the path the cyth had taken, but Verdan expected them to return soon.

“Okay, load up the supplies,” Tobias called out as he entered the area, wasting no time in getting people moving. Verdan doubted his encouragement was necessary, as everyone seemed to understand that time was critical and moved to load the abandoned goods onto the empty carts as swiftly as possible.

Verdan kept watch while the others worked, ensuring that nothing crept up on them via regular pulses with his ward. Thankfully, Pawel and Pania returned while the third cart was being loaded up, declaring that they’d found the trail the cyth had left.

“Verdan, do you have a moment?"Tobias asked, coming over to speak quietly with Verdan. “I’ll only get in the way if I come any further. I think this is the point where we split up. I’ll head back with Brent and the city guards. Everyone else has been instructed to follow your commands anyway, so that won't be a problem.”

“I was going to suggest the same thing if you didn't. This mission is looking to be more dangerous than we’d anticipated,” Verdan said equally softly. “You go back. I’ll make sure that we bring back everyone we can.”

“We owe it to them to try, but don’t go getting yourself killed, you hear me?” Tobias had a look of genuine concern on his face as he spoke.

“Don’t worry, I’ve done this before,” Verdan said reassuringly, patting the merchant on the shoulder and gesturing to the loaded carts. “We need to get moving. Every moment counts.”

“Right, yes, of course, it does,” Tobias said, the gaunt man turning to walk away before pausing and looking back. “Good luck, Verdan.”

Nodding in response, Verdan watched as Tobias walked away and gathered the group that would be returning with him. Without them, there were thirty-two people, a wolf and a raven on this mission. That was just enough to count as a good-sized raiding group in Verdan's mind.

The problem was that Verdan had growing concerns about the size of the cyth camp they were going after, but it was far too late for second thoughts now. It was either push on or abandon those who were taken. There was no going back for more people; it had already been longer than Verdan would like as it was.

“Pawel, Pania, lead the way. Let’s get moving,” Verdan called out as the carts set off back to the city. He’d meant what he’d said to Tobias; every moment counted and he intended to make the most of them.

The cyth were a race that had been completely twisted by the dark powers they worshipped; they had no need for captives. Anyone taken by the cyth had only blood-soaked altars, a dagger to the throat or corruption to look forward to.

One of the worst memories Verdan had was from when he took part in destroying a large camp of cyth, and they found the mass graves from the years of raiding and butchery. The sheer number of people that had died at the hands of those foul creatures had cemented Verdan’s hatred of them, and they were just as evil now as they were back then.

Watching everyone prepare to move out was a sobering experience for Verdan. Tobias’s hirelings lacked the true discipline of the guardsmen that Verdan remembered, but they would do for now. Tim was progressing nicely, and the four guards that Verdan had brought were showing their skill, but he’d still have traded most of them for a good squad of imperial guard.

Shaking off his morose feelings, Verdan focused on the here and now and led the group into the woods under Pania’s direction.

The tracks they’d found were going south, toward a particularly thick section of forest that the locals were familiar with. Apparently, the area used to be rife with logging camps thanks to an odd quirk that caused the local vegetation to grow much faster than normal. However, the thick greenery attracted plenty of wildlife, which in turn attracted monsters and stronger beasts.

Without sorcerers to back them up, the locals had given up the area rather than fight a losing battle, a typical story in the slow death of Hobson’s Point. The guard force they had now was a fraction of its former glory, so even the patrols didn’t go that far anymore. It seemed that in the absence of the loggers, the cyth had moved into the area as well.

There were a few things that might cause the plants to grow faster, but none of them were particularly useful in their current endeavour. Putting it aside, Verdan mentally marked the area as one to come back to in the future for further study.

For now, they had more important things to focus on.

-**-

An hour or two of hiking through the woods brought them to the border of the heavily forested area and the first sign of cyth presence.

It wasn’t something that the others would note, except for Gwen, but Verdan could feel the sickly corruption in the flora around him.

“On your guard, we’re in cyth territory now,” Verdan said calmly but authoritatively.

Whispered relays of his order spread through the group as weapons were drawn. A thick layer of tension hung over the group, one that only grew as they continued forward and the signs of corruption began to build.

Cyth corruption drained the life from that which it infected, slowly at first but faster over time as the cyth grew in power. This life drain killed the smallest things first, as they lacked the reserves of energy and strength to resist.

For a forest like this, that was shown by the patchy areas of grass and moss. Even areas that should be covered with growth were threadbare, to the extent that it was noticeable even to those who weren't looking for it. The lack of low-lying vegetation gave the area a strange appearance, and Verdan could see it affecting some of the others.

It was a small thing, but anyone looking at it would realise that it was unnatural, which bothered some more than others. Thankfully, Verdan was long since immune to such an effect due to repeated exposure.

“This is horrible,” Gwen said in little more than a whisper as she looked at the barren areas with wide eyes.

“This is the cyth. They corrupt and destroy the world around them piece by piece. They are a plague upon life and should be rooted out and destroyed wherever they are found,” Verdan growled, gripping his staff tight as he picked up the pace.

Over the next few minutes, all traces of grass disappeared, and the larger plants and bushes started to thin out. Verdan saw no sign of fresh growth either. All the plants here were old and established, with roots that had the vitality to survive the corruption.

“I can feel its pain, how it suffers from their presence,” Gwen said, one hand holding her stomach and the other resting on her raven.

“Hold up,” Verdan called out just loud enough to reach the nearest members of the group. He wasn’t detecting any cyth with the ward he’d created, but too much noise was still a bad idea.

Gwen was pale and looked uncomfortable as she frowned down at the ground. Verdan hadn’t expected her to react this strongly to the corruption, even with how established it was.

“What is it, Gwen?” Tim asked as he came over to rest a hand on her back with a worried expression.

“I can feel something, it’s familiar somehow, but it’s in so much pain. What’s happening?” Gwen turned to look at Verdan with a confused and somewhat nauseous expression.

“You said it felt familiar, in what way?” Verdan asked, his brow furrowing in thought.

“I don’t know. There’s just too much.”

“When did it start? Can you tell which direction it's coming from?” Verdan asked, wracking his mind for what might be the cause of Gwen’s pain.

“When we entered the thicker forest, at first, I thought it was the corruption, but it’s been getting stronger. I can feel that it's coming from that way,” Gwen said, pointing deeper into the forest.

The path they were taking had been skirting the exterior of the thickly forested area and was now heading further inward, but Gwen was pointing directly toward what Verdan assumed was the core of the forest.

“A fast-growing forest, one filled with pain because of the corruption, it might be a spirit. Gwen, listen to me. You need to ask it not to share its pain. It should listen to you.” Verdan said, concerned with how pale Gwen was looking.

“Okay,” Gwen murmured, a look of tension overtaking her face as she focused on something internally.

A few tense moments passed before Gwen sighed in relief, and her whole body seemed to relax.

“Okay, it’s stopped sharing the pain. I can still feel some of it, but not as much,” Gwen said, slumping down to sit on the floor with a heavy exhalation. “What in the goddess’s name just happened?”

“I think this is an older forest than we realise, one that’s developed a spirit, much like the glade of your family’s home. This one is strong, though, very strong. Perhaps even as old as the one that watched over the glade, which may mean that it can control Aether. The wellspring of vitality that it represents may have drawn the cyth here to begin with.” Verdan explained, wishing, not for the first time, that he could communicate with spirits directly.

“Why am I the only one it’s done this to?” Gwen asked with a touch of bitterness as she saw that everyone else was unaffected.

“Spirits will only communicate with beings that are heavily tied to nature, like witches. You’re already outside my area of expertise by being able to talk back to it,” Verdan said with a slight twinge of envy. The steps he trod as a wizard had been walked a thousand times before, and he knew it. He missed that feeling of exploring new ideas and concepts.

Verdan had enough Aether now to cast some of the spells he'd developed before the war, the ones that he'd used to develop the stasis spell he'd cast on himself. Even so, he was a ways from being able to spare the Aether for active research.

“I can still feel it, though it’s distant now,” Gwen said, her gaze vague as she focused on something only she could sense. “It’s asking for help.”

“That’s why we’re here, though I hadn’t expected to run into a powerful spirit as well,” Verdan said, focusing back on the current issue and holding out a hand to help Gwen back to her feet. “Can you keep it under control?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it,” Gwen said, taking a deep breath as she composed herself. “It's been in pain for so long. It was desperate for someone to help. It knows now that we’re going to destroy the source of the corruption.”

“Good, now, let’s see about relieving it of its pain,” Verdan said, signalling for the group to move out once more.

Verdan kept a weather eye on Gwen as they carried on, but she seemed to have everything under control now. He was concerned with how the spirit had been able to affect her by communicating its suffering. It meant that the spirit was strong but that the corruption level was very high.

The gradient they’d been following was still increasing as well. At this point, the only vegetation growing was old, strong trees. Anything smaller had gone, and nothing new was making it through, leaving large gaps in the canopy.

While the growing lack of cover was a problem, it also let them see more of their surroundings, showing just how much of the area had been sucked dry by the cyth corruption.

Verdan was looking at one particular tree that was in the process of finally losing the battle against corruption when his ward pinged. The aether construct informed him of two groups of cyth, one ahead and on the left and the other mirroring on the right. Fifteen of them altogether.

“Disir bel,” Verdan called out, gesturing to first one area and then the other with his staff. With each gesture, a fist-sized ball of light shot out from his staff toward the area he’d indicated, hovering in place above where the ward had detected the cyth. “Ambush!”

To their credit, the mercenaries reacted quickly to Verdan’s call, just not quite quickly enough.

The early afternoon light was bright, but dark clouds lingered overhead, giving just enough dimness for the cyth to have hidden in two parts of a long, winding gully.

The cyth boiled out of their hiding places as soon as Verdan’s light shone over them, abandoning their position without a second thought. A quick look with his Aether senses told Verdan that only cyth lai were present, the most common of cyth types.

Each cyth was a horrible blending of beast and humanoid, some of them more one than the other but all of them bearing crude weapons and a deep thirst for the blood of their enemies.

Verdan’s group was quite spread out in an attempt to catch more signs of any cyth as they passed, but that meant his ward only extended a short distance past some of the mercenaries.

The first casualty of their mission came as a cloven-hoofed cyth with rippling muscles hurled its rusty axe as it charged out of hiding, the weapon catching an unsuspecting mercenary in the chest.

The surrounding humans flocked together as they put up a united front against the cyth, the rest of the group racing forward to support them.

Verdan conjured small areas of shielding at a distance, turning aside lethal blows and throwing off the aim of the cyth. He could have done more, but he dared not expend the Aether.

Outnumbered and outmatched, the cyth hurled themselves at the humans with no regard for their safety, causing them to be cut down one by one until no more stood and fought.

With his small shields preventing lethal blows, only one more of the mercenaries was killed. Several were clawed or gained small wounds, but nothing too serious or debilitating.

The unfortunate woman who was killed had had her throat ripped out by a more canine cyth; Verdan just hadn’t been able to get a good angle on the tussle. The longer-range shield he’d been using was limited by what he could see, which was problematic in a chaotic fight.

Really, they’d been lucky that Verdan had stopped as much as he had. Hopefully, that luck would last.